Nursing Home

07/07/2017

The New York Times recently examined the impact of Viagra and the changing views on sexual relations on nursing homes in an article “Too Old for Sex? Not at This Nursing Home,” which includes the story of a New York nursing home that has created a dating service and holds a senior prom.

Today, many nursing homes have had to think about how to handle the situation when their residents are in relationships with each other.

While nursing home residents having sexual relationships might seem like an unimportant story, it actually is an important elder law issue. Sexual relationships in nursing homes raise the possibility of abuse and false claims of abuse.

Having guidelines is a way to let staff know how to act when there are relationships and how to look out for signs of abuse. Nursing homes do not necessarily need to go as far as the one in Brooklyn, but having policies and guidelines is important.

In the future, it seems that nursing homes will need to review and set their own policies regarding these relationships.

02/21/2017

Some elder law advocates have expressed concern that a Republican-controlled Congress may seek to repeal the sweeping new regulations on nursing homes, according to TheNew York Times in "Nursing Home Residents Gain New Restrictions."

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services attempted to improve care at nursing homes in the fall of 2016. As a result, the Obama administration pushed through new regulations that addressed patient complaints about their nursing homes.

Many of the new regulations address basic quality of life provisions. For instance, they include regulations requiring that patients be allowed to have any visitors they want at any hour as long as the visitors do not disturb other residents and that residents be allowed to choose their own roommates as long as both of them agree.

Some regulations are more controversial, such as not allowing nursing homes to require that residents agree to binding arbitration to settle disputes and changing the rules about readmission to facilities after an extended hospital stay.

08/02/2016

The New York Times recently examined the impact of Viagra and the changing views on sexual relations on nursing homes in an article “Too Old for Sex? Not at This Nursing Home,” which includes the story of a New York nursing home that has created a dating service and holds a senior prom.

Today, many nursing homes have had to think about how to handle the situation when their residents are in relationships with each other.

While nursing home residents having sexual relationships might seem like an unimportant story, it actually is an important elder law issue. Sexual relationships in nursing homes raise the possibility of abuse and false claims of abuse.

Having guidelines is a way to let staff know how to act when there are relationships and how to look out for signs of abuse. Nursing homes do not necessarily need to go as far as the one in Brooklyn, but having policies and guidelines is important.

In the future, it seems that nursing homes will need to review and set their own policies regarding these relationships.

05/25/2016

Despite federal laws limiting the eviction of nursing home patients, difficult patients who suffer dementia or have guardians who are critical of care at the home find themselves turned away, according to elder law advocates.

This is a big problem for nursing home residents and their families because most of the time there are few other options for the evicted residents other than staying in a hospital.

While residents have the right to appeal the evictions it is costly to do so. Sometimes, even when the resident wins the appeal, government agencies still do not require the nursing home to take the resident back.

To make matters worse, nursing homes found to have acted improperly are rarely, if ever, punished or fined.

Nursing homes themselves disagree with the advocates.

The American Care Association claims that the evictions are proper, but does agree that a national policy discussion is necessary to come to terms with the increasing number of nursing home residents who are difficult to care for.

05/13/2016

An increase in the minimum wage would most likely cause harm to seniors on fixed incomes because the price of goods and services could be expected to increase but an advocacy group sees such an increase as also bringing benefits to some of those same seniors.

The Paraprofessional Healthcare Institute reports that low employee compensation harms seniors in a very specific way in that it hurts the quality of care in nursing homes staffed by underpaid nursing assistants.

The theory is that underpaid caregivers have stresses in their own lives that can lead to not performing as well on the job. It also makes it more difficult to retain good, experienced caregivers who leave for better paying employment.

There are a couple of counter arguments to this. Most importantly, data suggests that quality of care in nursing homes is generally going up despite the low wages paid to nursing assistants. Another problem is that if wages in nursing homes are increased, it is not clear where the money will come from and nursing homes are already very expensive and reliant on Medicaid funding.

05/09/2016

The Lincoln Financial Group has conducted a study revealing nursing home costs vary greatly from state to state with costs in Connecticut almost triple the costs in Oklahoma and all of them are rising annually.

To put the rising costs in perspective, overall inflation in the U.S. was 1.58% in 2014. Nursing home costs thus rose greater than inflation, but not alarmingly so. In fact, 2% is also the target inflation rate the Federal Reserve aims for in any given year.

Of course, in the future inflation in nursing home costs might not continue at the 2% rate. It depends on numerous external factors.

Nevertheless, it can generally be assumed that the costs will continue to rise over time along with the costs of most everything else.

The important take away for individuals is that when making retirement and estate plans, it should be assumed that prices will be greater than they currently are. The 2% per year increase in costs can serve as a useful guide for people as they make their plans.

An estate planning attorney can guide you in dealing with these issues in your region of the country.

03/25/2016

California resident Bruce Anderson discovered the nursing home where he had been living for four years was not taking him back after he returned from a hospital stay for treatment of pneumonia. Under federal law Anderson was given a state hearing and he won.

An article in Next Avenue "The Agonizing Limbo of Abandoned Nursing Home Residents" detailed Anderson's problems when he was not readmitted to the nursing home because in California a different agency is supposed to enforce the rules. The enforcement agency sometimes disagrees with the results of the hearing and refuses to enforce the decisions.

Anderson is suing the state.

This is an unfortunate situation and it is not uncommon. Nursing homes are often eager to get rid of residents who require a lot of staff attention. The problem, however, is that these elderly people have nowhere else to go to receive care and must remain in hospitals when it is not medically necessary for them to do so.

In many cases it is actually harmful to stay in the hospital. This also creates financial problems for hospitals, too. It can cost more to provide care for these patients than the government is willing to reimburse.

03/24/2016

A five star quality measuring system has long been in place for nursing homes and can be checked on the Nursing Home Compare system on the Medicare website. Six new measurements will soon be added.

Anyone interested in information can look up detailed information about the nursing home, including whether it has received any penalties. And, the five-star system makes it easy to quickly compare different nursing homes against each other.

Of course, the ratings are only as good as the information that goes into making them.

02/19/2016

According to the fine print, any dispute between the consumer and the company are handled under contract by arbitration if the company has its say. Nursing homes and other elder care facilities are increasingly inserting similar arbitration clauses into their contracts.

Companies are quick to note that arbitration is normally faster and cheaper than going to court. However, consumer advocates and elder law attorneys point out that these clauses do not necessarily benefit consumers. In reality, arbitration can make it more difficult for consumers to prevail and remedies that might be available in court are sometimes not available in arbitration.